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Red Hats for Newborns + A Free Pattern

When I was nineteen, I lost a cousin to a heart attack. She was ten months younger than me, and as neither of us had sisters, I always considered her to be my would-be sister. The cause was likely an undiagnosed heart defect. My cousin’s passing is something I’ve always meant to write about, but since she’s not a member of my immediate family, I don’t feel comfortable going into tremendous detail since her death will always be much more their story than mine.

Our attempt at a selfie using a disposable camera at Grandma’s house, ca. 1996.

I decided to touch on this topic today for a couple reasons. August 26 marks, I can’t believe it, 8 years since it happened. From my perspective, I always thought this tragedy could just as easily have struck any one of the grandkids in my family as it struck her. But really, as I’ve grown and matured with the influence of that tragedy on my life, I now realize that this could have happened to anyone. This leads me to the other reason I’m sharing this story today – to let you guys know how you can help raise awareness about congenital heart defects (heart defects babies are born with).

The Campaign

Please note this information is from the 2015 campaign. As of October 2015, there are over 20 states participating in Little Hats, Big Hearts. Please visit the AHA’s Little Hats, Big Hearts page to see if a state near you is participating in this fantastic program!

A couple months ago, I came across a new group on Meetup called Chicago‘s Red Hats for Newborns Project, organized by the American Heart Association. As you might know, February is American Heart Month. The AHA is hoping to gather at least 1,000 donated red hats for newborns to give to (hopefully) every newborn in Chicago during the month of February 2015. The hats will be donated to new parents as a way to raise awareness about the AHA’s mission and of the fact that heart defects are the most common congenital defect among newborns. Check out the AHA’s website for more information on this project.

The AHA is looking for donations of a few things:

finished knit or crochet hats for newborns

red yarn

gift cards for buying red yarn

If you’re knitting/crocheting a hat, or donating yarn, they prefer medium to heavy weight yarn. It must also be a washable material, and they’d like donors to avoid any exotic fabrics and wools. The deadline for donations is January 15, 2015.

How to donate

You can simply drop your donations in the mail to the address below, but I’d love to see your donations before you do! You can use the hashtag #handsoccupied on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook/etc. or email me pictures of your donations at handsoccupied-at-gmail-dot-com. I’m planning on doing a roundup of everyone’s brilliant donated items and want to make sure to include you all!

If you live in other parts of the United States and want to donate locally, email me and I’ll get in touch with my contact at the AHA to connect you to where you can donate hats locally.

The Pattern: Baby Hearts Hat

Since this is an issue that is near and dear to me, I wanted to share a pattern for you guys to knit up specific to this cause. The pattern features four big hearts spaced evenly around the hat as a nod to Heart Month. Also, heart shapes are cute, especially on the head of a baby!

I made this Baby Hearts Hat pattern in two sizes, using this this size chart. The newborn size is 14 inches in circumference and obviously for newborns and is the size the Heart Association is looking for for donations. I thought I’d include a baby size, which is 17 inches in circumference, in case you want to make an extra one for a baby in your life.

The other differences between the newborn size and baby size is that the baby size features a folded edge and a pom pom. Newborns have enough new things to learn without a pom pom (no matter how adorable the pom may be) pushing into their soft spots. I’m not a baby expert, but that seemed like a practical change to include. Plus, I skipped the cuff on the newborn size so you wouldn’t have to worry about it rolling down onto the newborn’s face.

Babies wiggle all over the place – they don’t have time for no stinking pom poms!

About Heidi

Heidi Gustad is a knitting, crochet and crafts designer. She first learned to knit at age 8 from a grandmother who saw in her a need for something to keep her busy. She's now a full time designer, video host, blogger & teacher. You can keep up with her designs and more by following handsoccupied on your favorite social network.

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Comments

Hi Mary! That’s totally understandable. :) Since this pattern perfectly repeats twice, I *think* it should work flat. If you get it to work, let me know, I’d love to add that to the notes on this pattern! -Heidi

Mary;
DPN’s hate me too. I knit everything I can flat…with the Magic Loop method, using circular needles. I gave away all my straight needles because you can use a circular needle just like a straight needle.
I love Magic Loop because I can knit all the way down to tiny baby mitten thumbs, and do it flat…but it turns out seamlessly and in the round.
There’s lots of youTube clips on ML.
If you do go for Magic Loop, invest in Addi interchangeable needles. There are other types of interchangeables which cost far less, and I’ve owed them (and sold them). Any needle system that you screw onto the cord WILL untwist and fall off, usually when you least want it to. What a mess. Plus it’s far too easy to flare out the tip end while tightening with the little tool. The metal is too cheap.
Addi Clicks are a bayonet-type fitting and don’t undo until you want it to.

The only contact that I’m aware of is in Chicago. :( Knitters from as far as Portugal have been mailing hats to this area. Maybe next year they’ll be able to expand the program with how big Chicago’s has gotten!

According to this hat size chart, which is my go to size chart, the 17″ head size should work for you! Just compare the baby you’re knitting for’s head size with the chart in case they’ve got a head size that’s different than the average. As a woman with a tiny head (21″), I’m always knitting teen or women’s XS hats to fit me! -Heidi :)

Thank you for sharing this pattern. I am very sorry for your loss – my niece was diagnosed at 1 month old as a CCHD baby. It’s been a long road for her these last 15 months, and she has a long road ahead. I am working on hats for this campaign and hope to create a stockpile over the next year as well :)

i love this hat and have made two of the newborn size however I am having trouble with the larger size. Sixty four 64 stitches does not work out correct.when you start the 20th row you are left with 3 stitches at the end of the row. Is there a correction to this pattern?

The pattern is correct – I just double checked the math and others have knit this hat without running into extra sts at the end of row 20. Since there are 64 sts each round, the repeating pattern in rows 20 through 29 should each be 16 sts since 16 goes into 64 4 times, resulting in 4 repeating heart motifs equally spaced around the hat.

With the newborn size, I used 56 sts and a heart motif that repeats 4 times around the hat, but is accomplished with only 14 sts. So 56/14 = 4 repeating motifs around the newborn size.

Heidi. I love this idea and pattern. I’m newish to hats and dp needles. I have size 4s and size 8s. I can I do this pattern with one of these sizes or should I go buy size 6s???? Ps. I’m on Chicago too! Former YA librarian. Now I work at ALA. I was so excited to find your blog and learn about your careers.

WARNING! If you go to Crafter Me website as mentioned above in Nutmegknitter’s suggestion (the green one) a pop-up box comes on. Don’t click it or follow the advice to call a number to correct a virus. It’s not real and they are trying to get your information.

I do not understand how to estimate the finished size of the hat if you use the different weight yarns and larger knitting needles. For example, what if I use knitting worsted weight yarn with size 8 needles? Or what about using knitting worsted weight yarn with size 9 needles? Thank you for explaining things for me to understand.

It’s called calculating your gauge, which basically means knitting a rectangle in the needles and yarn you’ll be making a project in to see how many stitches and rows per inch you’re getting. Here’s a useful tutorial: https://www.craftsy.com/blog/2013/05/how-to-measure-your-gauge-in-knitting/. If you need help calculating gauge for the first time, shoot me an email at Heidi-at-handsoccupied-dot-com and I’ll walk you through it! :)

Thank you for sharing your beautiful pattern . I’ve stumbled onto quite by mistake but now you’ve got me hooked. I’ll be knitting a few of these and posting them to you all the way from Tasmania ( Australia )

Hi I saw the post on Facebook for preemie hats needed for the heart association. My daughter and I have taken up loom knitting and we would love to donate red hats for this great cause .we r not sure where to take them because syracuse ny is not on the list .

Hats are being collected, for the most part, at the state level. Visit the Little Hats, Big Hearts campaign website and click the New York link for the address of the person collecting and distributing hats to NY hospitals. Thanks so much for knitting! :D

Hi, just wondering what sort of gauge is needed for this? I’m planning to use Debbie Bliss baby cashmerino which suggests a size 3 needle and wondering how this hat would turn out with a size 6 needle. Gorgeous pattern!! Thanks :)

The yarn I used for the pictured hat was Patons Classic Wool DK Superwash, and its gauge is 22 sts & 28 rows on a US 6 needle. You could maybe hold two strands of the Debbie Bliss yarn you mention together for a similar gauge – I’d recommend knitting a 4 inch swatch holding the 2 strands together on US6 needles to see if your gauge is close to mine. That way you might not need to modify the pattern. Best of luck!

Heidi: If the gauge on your Paton yarn is 22 st/4 in., that would be 5.5 st per in. The larger hat has 64 st around, so this works out to 11.6 in. in circumference — much smaller than the 17 in. shown. The smaller hat with 56 st around works out to 10.2 in. in circumference — not 14 in.. What am I missing here?

Dear Heidi, Thank you for the beautiful pattern! ❤️ I have forwarded it to so many in Texas that knit for, Little hats, big hearts. I started this program in Texas and have meet some the best ladies wanting to help! Thank you again, Nancy Rink-Johnson, Sonora, Texas

Hello Heidi – We are doing Little Hats, Big Hearts at the hospital level, and I’m wondering if you would mind if we posted a link to your adorable hat pattern. Could you please let me know if that would be OK? We’ll certainly give you the credit – let me know how you would like that credit to appear.

I participated in this project last year and have already started for this year (I just got a bag of red yarn donated to me for this). I am so excited to have come across this pattern!! It’s perfect for the Little Hats Big Hearts Campaign!!! Thank you so much!!!

I’m working the first baby size hat. I just have a question as the heart pattern doesn’t seem to be working out perfectly…it seems I have a half of heart at the end of the round and a larger gap before the first heart at the beginning of the round. I also do not have enough stitches in between (say to do the k4 p6 k4, seems I have to do k4, p6 k2 p6 k 2 all the way around in order for the hearts after the first to be symmetrical). Hmmm. Thoughts? Thanks!

OH Wow! Just what I was looking for for Red Hat Day. I’m going to try one of these today. If it works out I plan on making a ton for our local Seattle children’s hospitals. Have you tried your pattern on the Loops and Threads/Addki knitting machine? I’d love to try it on the loops and threads machine, since I want to make a LOT and my hands hurt after a couple hours knitting. Thank you! :)

How fun! You can cast on any multiple of 8 stitches for the pattern repeats to work out. To calculate a larger size, I recommend doing a gauge swatch to know what number of stitch to cast on to get the size you’re looking for. Happy birthday to your aunt, by the way!

I like Red Heart Super Saver because it’s so so cheap and easy to launder. Yes, it’s 100% acrylic, but it’s sturdy as heck and is virtually indestructible, which is appreciated by the volunteers tasked with laundering thousands of hats!

Hi Heidi, I would love to help. I knit all the time, and my grandson Parker has CHD. But do I have to use one of these patterns?? I have a simple hat I make, that folds up on the head. And I only use red heart yarn.

This little hat is so cute! I’m knitting it up on bigger needles (size 9-10) in the baby size and getting a hat big enough for bigger kids. It’s a perfect pattern for Operation Christmas Child, so I am using any and all my leftover yarn to try to get as many as I can for next year. Our church fills 600+ boxes, so it’ll be a big challenge.

Also, if you don’t mind, I think I’ve adjusted the pattern to get an adult size. Haven’t tried it yet to see, but I want to knit one up for our pastor, who has just won his battle with throat cancer. His head needs a head warmer and the heart pattern is perfect.

hello Heidi.. .just read your note above and the reason for the red beanie for kids….i crochet so would love to try the heart cap via crochet. can u possibly share a crochet pattern for the same as i would love to try out some for the cause. thx

To my knowledge, you have to first send your hats to the donation coordinator in your area to have them laundered and bundled with an information packet to help new parents learn more about congenital heart defects. I don’t work for Little Hats Big Hearts/American Heart Association, so I recommend reaching out to your nearest donation coordinator. Good luck! :)

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[…] Repeat Crafter Me has an adorable Top Knot Hat Pattern that I also made. I just came across this Red Hats for Newborns pattern at Hands Occupied and started it last night. I’ll be sure to take a photo of the hats all […]